This fluid is actually called a liquid, but acts as both liquid and a gas, mainly because its boiling temperature is programed to be around 50 to 65 C - causing the fluid to boil next to the heatsink and then pass through a condensator (in the top) to return back to liquid.
https://peakd.com/hive-124838/@forkyishere/20260303t003741528z
@wiseagent @ankapolo @katriel1
I'll have to process the information well, interesting that these things happen that I had no idea about, I'll investigate
Well, I would not expect these to be everyday things. They are already quite edge thing around what I do, so most people will never know about them, hence why I like to share them here.
that's pretty interesting, what cools it down then? and does this process consumes more/less power compared to water or air cooling?
Another secondary water loop cools it down. Its a two-sage cooling product that I saw at SC (supercomputing conference) some years ago.
This process usually consumes about the same as a water cooling loop. But you can run the datacenter much hotter. Because the secondary loop water can now run at any temperature above 40 C, which is much higher than direct water cooling solutions. And this means you can have cooling equipment that run on what is called "free cooling" because you don't need to refrigerate the secondary loop like in traditional water cooling solutions, saving a lot of energy.
So, circling back to the case of free cooling (both water and this special two-stage solution), its about the same. But if you consider normal refrigerated secondary loop, then this two-stage will be more efficient.
Cooling stuff was always something I enjoyed, and with all the AI stuff, its getting super crazy.
thank you for that explanation, its fascinating... I wonder if this will eventually be used in the big data centers... I imagine it will cost more to start but will have savings in thee long run... plus more environmentally conscientious. I'm also guessing it's a type of alcohol.
No, alcohol would be dangerous. This is a dielectric fluid (scientific name) because the electric properties of the material are artificially removed with other chemicals to create something new that is not conductive electrically, but it does have thermal conductivity still.
Its already used in datacenters, but it way more pricy than usual other stuff. But yes you guessed right, its usually because environmental problems that these get used, because the liquid is non-flammable and non-electrical, protecting against fire hazards.